Friday 9 February 2024

Today is Friday the 9th of February in the fifth week of Ordinary time.

The Cape Town Camerata sings, ‘Ubi Caritas’: ‘Wherever love is true, God is there’. How have you experienced the love of God recently? Perhaps in something that was very ordinary, yet you found the love of God there…

Ubi caritas et amor Deus ibi est
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor
Exsultemus et in ipso iucundemur
Timeamus et amemus Deum vivum
Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero


Where charity and love are, God is there.
Love of Christ has gathered us into one.
Let us rejoice in Him and be glad.
Let us fear, and let us love the living God.
And from a sincere heart let us love one.

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 7:31-37

Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’

We are privileged to witness a sensitive scene today: an intimate scene of healing.

‘He took him aside in private, away from the crowd …’ Consider the tenderness and respect Jesus has for this man, and awareness of the need for privacy.

The man must’ve been much loved: we read “they begged him to lay his hand on him”. Picture him. Imagine how he has been communicating with others up until now. Allow the tenderness and compassion of the moment to touch you too.

As you hear the passage again, place yourself in the scene. Where does your own longing, your own compassion, your own need take you? Whom might you ask Jesus to heal?

Speak to the Lord, the healer, the supporter of the weak and defenseless, about whatever has stirred in your heart today.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.